Hands on with Google Translate: A mix of awesome and OK

Real time translation, the kind we imagined in science fiction is finally within reach. In the space of just a few months, Microsoft has introduced live translation services to Skype (still in preview) and now the latest Google Translate features live, language-detecting, two-way audio translation on its free iOS and Android apps.

Like Skype Translator Preview. Google Translate [iTunes link] can handle dozens of languages and will understand and return text and audio translations in real time. Unlike the Microsoft product, Google Translate is not a preview and anyone with an iPhone (iOS 7.0 or higher and Android 2.3 or later) can download and use it today. The updated app also adds the augmented-reality translation tool Word Lens.

Mashable tried the app out on foreign-language signs and our foreign language friends. The results are impressive, though uneven.

Word Lens

The best way to describe how Word Lens works is “magic.” First introduced in 2010 and bought by Google in 2014, the app uses your phone’s camera to instantly transform foreign-language signs into the language of your choice. And instead of just spitting out dull text below the sign, World Lens uses augmented reality to overlay the translated text, almost perfectly matching the design and layout of the original sign.

I wasn’t on the road, but was able to use the myriad number of street signs on Google Image to test Word Lens.

Google Translates’ home screen offers the option of interpreting pictures, spoken words, typing in the words you want translated or even writing in by hand the words you need interpreted.

Here are some examples of Word Lens in action. The original sign images are on top and Google Translate Word Lens interpretations are on the bottom.

Image: Google, Mashable Composite

I selected a number of signs from Google Image and in the app chose a starting language and the final translation language. I then selected the camera icon and followed the on-screen instructions, which told me to align the text with the on-screen bracket guides. However, even before I did that, the text was translated, not always perfectly, mind you, but usually very close. And, as promised, I did not need an Internet connection to derive the translations.

I translated signs from English to German and from German to English. I also translated Italian to English. I tried to translate Hebrew signs, but it wouldn’t work. Also, when Google Translate cannot translate a particular language in Word Lens or through audio, the camera and microphone icons will disappear.

Real time

This latest version can perform a neat trick. Once you select the two speaking languages, Google Translate can auto detect them as they are spoken (as long as you touch the mic icon after you start speaking). So when you’re speaking English, you do not have to press the English button, and when you friend is speaking Turkish, they don’t have to press the Turkish button.

I tried this with an intern who happens to speak Turkish. At first, we stumbled because the intern, who is also fluent in English, kept responding to what I was saying and not waiting for Google Translates’ interpretation. Eventually, she got it right and started waiting for my translated words to be spoken by the app.

Here are some examples of Google Translate real-time two way translations.

Initially, she told me, the translation was perfect, but when I started to speak in longer sentences, it basically fell apart and got a lot of it wrong. As I tested with others who spoke in Greek, German and French, we noticed the same thing. We could never completely rely on Google translate to get the words right.

It's worth noting that while Word Lens doens't need an Internet Connection, live audio translation does. On ocassion, my phone couldn't find the Google servers and translation services failed. Other times, it seemed to take a while to talk to the server and return an accurate translation. In many of the conversations I had through Google Translate, people enjoyed trying out profanity. Google Translate did an admirable job of understanding and then saying the epitaphs. You can, if you choose, turn on a profanity filter.

Overall, we were impressed with the experience and I could imagine being in France or Turkey with only this app as my personal interpreter. I know I’d be able to read the street signs and, thanks to Google Translate, I’d be able to get the gist of what Turkish speakers were saying to me and they might be able to understand me, as well.

For what it’s worth, Skype Translator preview left me with much the same impression. The difference is that, with Skype, both speakers need, for now at least, to have Skype Preview on their desktop or laptop computers. Google Translator is mobile and ready to go. Score one for Google and for global communication, in general.

Mashable
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